AnnualReport2020

Highlights in Medical Care

Shriners Hospitals for Children is a leader in providing innovative care, and strives to give our patients high-quality care that will allow them to overcome physical challenges to the fullest extent possible, and have full, productive lives. New Scoliosis Treatment For some young teens coping with scoliosis (curvature of the spine), there is a promising new alternative to spinal fusion procedures. The Tether, which uses patented methods and techniques developed by the medical staff at Shriners Hospitals for Children — Philadelphia, recently received approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as the first commercially available product specifically for anterior vertebral body tethering (VBT), an innovative surgical procedure that both corrects the curve and maintains flexibility in the spine. Instead of using metal rods, VBT uses a strong, flexible cord to gently pull on the outside of a scoliosis curve to straighten the spine. The procedure straightens the spine using the patient’s growth process. The pressure from the cord slows the growth on the tall side of the vertebra, so that the short side can catch up with the growth. This novel technology allows for both correction and continued motion at the levels of the spine treated, unlike fusion surgeries. As an emerging treatment for a small patient population, this system is being made available through the FDA’s humanitarian device exemption (HDE) pathway.

The Philadelphia Shriners Hospital medical staff developed the methods and techniques underlying this treatment. Through the leadership of Amer Samdani, M.D., chief of surgery at Shriners Hospitals for Children — Philadelphia, our health care system recently secured a patent on these methods and techniques. In parallel with that process, Dr. Samdani and other Shriners Hospitals staff worked closely with the FDA and the medical device industry to bring this new device, designed specifically for VBT

surgeries, to approval. “The ability to utilize a child’s growth to correct the curve in their back is a leap in the way these children are treated – properly selected patients can achieve curve correction

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